Name: Date:

Student Exploration: Disease Spread

Directions: Follow the instructions to go through the simulation. Respond to the questions and
prompts in the orange boxes.

Vocabulary: disease, epidemic, infect, infectious disease, pathogen

Prior Knowledge Questions (Do these BEFORE using the Gizmo.)

1. Why do you think it is important to cover your mouth when you cough?

It is important to cover my mouth when coughing to avoid the virus from spreading to other
people.

2. Why should you always wash your hands before you eat?

to avoid touching food with dirty hands that has lot of viruses that get us sick.

Gizmo Warm-up
When a person has a disease, his or her normal body functions are
disrupted. Some diseases, such as diabetes and most cancers, are not
spread from one person to another. But other diseases, such as the flu
and strep throat, can be spread. These diseases are known as
infectious diseases. Infectious diseases are caused by viruses,
bacteria, and other agents known as pathogens.

In the Disease Spread Gizmo, you will be able to observe how various
pathogens can spread through a group of people. Click Play ( ) and
observe.

1. Describe what happened on the SIMULATION pane:

People moving around. people who are near each other turn green .

2. Look at the color key on the bottom right of the Gizmo. What is happening when a person changes color?

If there are people with blue this means they're not affected by others around them and
they are healthy,green means that they have eaten poisoned food (foodborne). orange
means they have gotten a virus that was spreading from person to another.

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 Get the Gizmo ready:
Activity A: ● Click Reset ( ).
● On the CONTROLS tab under Active Diseases,
Person-to-person turn off Foodborne and turn on Person to
transmission person.
● Set the Number of people to 5.

Question: What factors affect how quickly a pathogen spreads from person to person?

1. Predict: Some pathogens are spread directly from one person to another. This can happen when people
come into direct contact or share items, such as drinking glasses. What do you think might affect how
quickly a pathogen is spread from person to person?

How fast it transmits and population.

2. Identify: Select the SIMULATION tab on the left and the TABLE tab on the right. (You will want the table tab
open to answer question C.)

A. What does the purple person represent? Healthy

B. Click Play, and observe the simulation for a They must be near each other.
while. What must happen for the disease to
spread from one person to another?

C. How long did it take to infect five people? It depends on how fast it spreads and
the number of people.

3. Experiment: Click Reset. Change the Number of people to 15. Click Play, and record how long it takes to
infect five people. Repeat this four times for a total of 5 trials, and calculate the mean time. Repeat the
experiment when there are 25 people and 35 people in the room.

Number of people Time to infect five people, 5 trials (h) Mean time (h)
15 22.3 , 21.1, 16 , 23.8,27.7 22.18
25 18.2 , 18.3 , 25.6, 19.6,18.6 20.06
35 12.4, 12.2, 18.4, 11.2,11.1 13.06

4. Interpret: Study the data you collected. What trend do you see in the data, and how would you explain it?

whenever I add more people the virus spreads fast this tells me that more people
surrounding by each others = faster spread .

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5. Experiment: Not all pathogens are equally infectious. Click Reset. Set the Number of people to 20. Under
Probability of transmission, select Low for Person to person.

On the SIMULATION tab, click Play. Record the time it takes to infect five people for five trials, and find the
mean. Then repeat the experiment with a medium and high probability of transmission. (Note: For the
“Medium” setting, move the slider half-way between the Low and High positions.)

Transmission probability Time to infect five people, 5 trials (h) Mean time (h)
Low 193, 206, 171,158,108 167.2
Medium 14,17,12.2,17.7,19.2 16.02
High 14.3, 7.1 ,7.1, 4.6 ,14.5 9.52

6. Interpret: Study the data you collected in the table above. What trend do you see in the data, and how
would you explain it?

Higher probability of transmission = faster spread

7. Analyze: On the CONTROLS tab, place the Probability of transmission slider under Person to person
half-way between Low and High. Select the SIMULATION and GRAPH tabs. Click Play.

A. At what time did the disease spread most firstly it spreads slowly after more
slowly? Most quickly? people become affected it becomes
even more quickly,

B. How could you explain this change in the It shows that the more affected people
rate of the disease’s spread? meet affected people it spreads faster,

8. Apply: An epidemic is the rapid spread of an infectious disease. How do you think a government could try
to prevent an epidemic of a dangerous person-to-person pathogen?

The government could stop people from doing public gatherings.

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 Activity B: Get the Gizmo ready:
● Click Reset.
Foodborne and ● On the CONTROLS tab under Active diseases,
airborne turn off Person to person and turn on
transmission Foodborne.

Question: How do foodborne and airborne pathogens spread?

1. Predict: How do you expect the spread of a foodborne disease to be similar to and different from the
spread of a person-to-person disease?

both came to the thing that contains the pathogen. in the foodbore the food had the
virus in the person to person it was the people.

2. Observe: Select the SIMULATION tab. Click Play and closely watch the people moving around the room.
A. What does each person do just before They visit the buffet table .
becoming infected?

B. How are foodborne pathogens transmitted? by eating the food that contains
pathogen

C. If a person in the simulation never eats or it is highly unlikely for a person to

drinks anything from the buffet table, is it become sick with a foodborne disease if
possible for them to become sick with the they consistently avoid eating or
foodborne disease? Explain your answer. drinking anything from a buffet table

3. Analyze: Select the GRAPH tab, and wait for every person to become infected.
A. At what time did the disease spread most In the beginning it was fast spreading
slowly? Most quickly? but after that it got slower.

B. How could you explain this change in the people are most likely to visit it in
rate of the disease’s spread? certain times of the day with time less
people would go eat from the table.

4. Compare: How does the spread of a foodborne pathogen compare to the spread of the person-to-person
pathogen you studied in activity A?

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 a foodborne pathogen spreads slower because it could not increase time which is the
opposite of the person to person spread pathogen .

5. Predict: How would you expect the spread of an airborne disease to be similar to and different from the
spread of a foodborne disease and a person-to-person disease?

Airborne diseases spread faster because it's easier to breathe in contaminated air than to
directly touch a person or object carrying the pathogen.

6. Think about it: Suppose there is an infectious disease at a party. How could doctors tell if the disease was
foodborne or transmitted person to person?

Doctors will ask where they have been or what they ate . if the same people who ate from
the same food were affected that means it was foodborne , if people who were near each
other were infected it is likely that it was transmitted person to person.

Reproduction for educational use only. Public sharing or posting prohibited. © 2020 ExploreLearning™ All rights reserved